The Bad Wolf Parts the Ways
by buffyandspikefan
Summary: Sequel to Blaidd Drwg in Boom Town. A married 9 and Rose must now face the Dalek invasion as the 'Parting of the Ways' episode gets a new twist! Charaters not mine, don't sue. Feedback is greatly appreciated!
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One:**

"The leaves on the trees are silver." He traced an invisible pattern on my bare hip with one finger absently. "And when the light from the suns in the burnt orange sky hits them just right, it looks like forests of fire."

"Sounds lovely."

"It was. Quite breathtaking."

In the everyday, the Doctor never wanted to talk about the planet of his birth, now reduced to nothing but rubble. Finding out what the looping scripts and patterns that scrolled across the screens of the TARDIS meant was like pulling teeth. But in the afterglow, bare limbs entwined with mine, he became more forthcoming with the information, more willing to reminisce. Hell, I could probably get him to spill Gallifreyan government secrets. Not, that is, that I wanted them.

"I wish I could've seen it." My thoughts went to a planet and its people, completely erased from existence trying to take the Daleks with them.

Completely erased, except for my husband. The last of the Time Lords.

His face clouded. "Me too." His eyes took on a faraway look, and I knew this was why he didn't like to take a lot of trips down memory lane. He gave me a faint smile as if sensing my worry. "Even if the Time War hadn't happened, I don't know that I would have been welcomed back with open arms. It's not as if I was Gallifrey's most popular citizen, denouncing the society and flying off to be a Traveler."

"Oh? Bit of a rebel, you are." I leaned up to kiss him.

"I've always spoke my mind."

"Imagine, your mouth getting you in trouble." I smiled and sat up. "Seriously, you might give some thought to cleaning up this room. I know you're barely in here, since you apparently never sleep, but sometimes I'm afraid I won't be able to escape your black hole of junk." I motioned to the piles of assorted bits of technology and artifacts around his room.

"That's why I rarely take you back here. What did I come in here for anyway?" He looked around. "There was something I was going to show you..."

"Before I so rudely interrupted by pointing out that we've never shagged in your actual bed?"

"Exactly. You rudely pointed it out, and so I took it upon myself to remedy that." He grinned. "Oh, now I remember." He reached into the bedside table and pulled out a small photograph album.

"There you are." He handed it to me and lay back down, hands behind his head, his usual grin on his face.

"What is it?" I flipped it open and was immediately greeted by a snapshot of a man with an afro of crazy brown hair with what looked like a fedora perched on top of it. He was wearing a long brown overcoat and the longest scarf I had ever seen, it was looped several times around his neck and still reached past his knees. He had a smug expression on his face and a hook of a nose.

"Who's this? Someone you've traveled with before?" I had figured there must have been other travelers than me in the past, considering the WOMEN'S clothes in the wardrobe and the sheer range of sizes. "Look at that crazy hair! How very disco."

"I'll have you know that was in style during several time periods."

"And that scarf!" I laughed. "That's..." I trailed off. "That's in the wardrobe. I've seen it before. He must've left it behind. Not that I blame him, I would too. Nice fedora. Where'd you pick this guy up, in a Sam Spade discotheque?"

He frowned at me. "Laugh it up, you're married to that bloke."

I stared at him, confused. "What?"

He tapped the picture. "That's me."

I looked at the picture and back at him. "No. It looks nothing like you."

"Well, not now, obviously, but that was me, oh, five lifetimes ago." He kissed my forehead. "Rose, love, I have to tell you one of my Time Lord tricks, just in case it ever happens again while you're here. We're able to cheat death by regenerating, changing our bodies from a cellular level on up. That's how come I'm 900 years old."

"Does your personality change with each regeneration?"

"I suppose a bit of me does, but wouldn't you change a bit after 900 years?"

"True," I looked down at the picture and then at him. "You're so lucky I met you now instead of back then."

"Oi!"

"Had I went to Paxil with this guy, I would have begged them to let the other guy win," I joked.

"I thought I was handsome back then!" he looked down at the picture.

"Yeah, I can tell! Look at that smug expression. It's as if you don't know you have a hook nose and mad hair."

"Hey!"

"You have a much nicer nose now."

"Yes, and I have elephantine ears, a receding hairline and a daft face, that's so much better."

"I think it is," I said softly.

He kissed me proper. "I love you too, Rose Tyler. Now, want to see another?"  
He took the book out of my hands and flipped through.

"Of course!" I snuggled up to him.

"Right, this is me in my first life," he said, pointing to a very dapper-looking older gentleman with longish white hair and a stern expression leaning on a cane, standing with a lovely girl about my age with short black hair and a warm smile.

"Who's she?"

"My granddaughter, Susan. She traveled with me for a while." His voice sounded rough, and I remembered that she was likely dead, along with the rest of the Time Lords. He flipped a page. "My third regeneration."

"You had a thing for mad hair!" I said, this time seeing an older man with what seemed to be a cloud of white hair attached to his head.

He flipped another page. "There. Better?"

This time he was a young man with blondish brown hair, and a long grey coat over striped pants and what looked like a tennis sweater and shirt. A matching white fedora hat was perched rakishly on his hat.

I took the book from him. "Blimey, you were cute!"

"Don't sound too surprised."

"Well you either had mad hair or were older, this is the first picture where you're roughly my age and attractive."

"Because I'm so close to your age now," he kissed my shoulder.

"Still attractive," I reminded him and turned to kiss him full on the mouth.

The TARDIS alarms sounded madly.

We froze.

"What the bloody hell is that?"

"I don't know," he said, jumping up and dressing faster than I'd ever seen him do before. "Something's wrong." He took off out the door before I had even located half of my clothes.

Finally dressed, I found him banging on the TARDIS' controls. "Something's trying to get in. This is impossible, nothing can..."

It was as if a spotlight went off in my face. A bright white light surrounded us, obliterating my vision and then it felt as if I was being turned inside out.

I woke up on the floor to what sounded like a game show theme.

"Welcome to the Weakest Link..."


	2. Chapter 2

This couldn't be happening.

Never mind that I was somehow transported off the TARDIS.

Never mind that the Doctor was nowhere to be seen.

Never mind the fact that I was suddenly on a game show where if you were voted out, you died.

No, it was the fact that I was in the final round tied with Roderick to win when I knew none of the answers when smarter people had died before me, that's what I couldn't believe. This had to be a mad dream.

"Rose?" The Ann-Droid reminded me that I had to answer.

And I had no idea what the answer could be.

This was it. I was going to die on The Weakest Link without ever knowing how in God's name I ended up here.

"Is it┘"

The door burst open and my knight in black leather strode into the room.

"Rose! Let her go!" he addressed the Ann-Droid. A blonde girl in pigtails, who was about my age, trailed along after him, looking uncertain.

I was relieved to see him and whomever else he had picked up. "Doctor!" I called, running toward him.

"You are the weakest link."

I saw the Doctor's face pale before I heard the unmistakable clipped, "Goodbye."

There was no time to scream.

I found myself not dead, but instead lying on the floor of a spaceship.

"What?" I sat up slowly. So no one was dying, were they faking it for ratings or something?

And then I saw something that made my blood run cold.

"It can't be!" I stumbled to my feet, staring in horror. "It's not right!"

"Sensors indicate the presence of time travel radiation."

"You're dead! You're all dead, he said so!" My mind was stalled out, not able to process this. No way was that a Dalek.

"The human is wearing a ring with Time Lord writing on it," another Dalek said, coming up from behind me.

I moved away from it.

"Explain," the first one droned.

"It's my wedding ring," I said, putting it behind my back. "It doesn't say anything, it's just a design."

"You are lying, your heart rate has sped up," the second one beeped.

"You wear a band with Time Lord writing, you are saturated with radiation, you are traveling with a Time Lord."

"Fine!" I growled. "You're right. I am traveling with a Time Lord. And if you touch one hair on my head, he's going to make the Time War look like a walk in the park to get me back, do you understand me!"

The Daleks seemed to consider that. "There is only one who survived the Time War. Confirm he is on Satellite Five."

"Confirm. Confirm," another one said. "The Time Lord known as the Doctor was last logged in as a prisoner."

"Records modified, the Doctor has broken free," another said.

I grinned. "And he's not going to let this slide, trust me."

"You are important to the Doctor?" the first Dalek said.

"Confirm records √ a wedding ring to humans confirms a bond," another Dalek said.

"You are bonded to the Doctor?"

I nodded.

The Dalek's gun swiveled up to meet me. "Then your death will cause him pain."

"Alert! Alert! We are detected! It is the Doctor, he has located us!" the first one screamed, delaying my possible extermination. "Open communications channel"  
"The female will stand. Stand!" Another pointed his gun at me and I scrambled up again.

The vid screen in front of us came alive. My heart sped up as I saw the Doctor, his face grave, surrounded by humans. And that blonde girl again. I hoped I wasn't getting replaced.

"We would speak with the Doctor," the lead Dalek said.

"Oh, will you?" The Doctor gave them a fake smile. "That's nice, hello."

"According to our stratagem, the Earth nears completion. The Fleet is ready, you will not intervene."

"Oh, really? Why's that then?"

"We have your bond mate." One prodded me closer to the screen. "You will obey or she will be exterminated."

I looked at the screen, into the eyes of the Doctor, my best friend, my husband.

And I knew without a shadow of a doubt what he would say.

"No."

The humans around him turned to stare. Even the Daleks seemed taken aback.

"Explain yourself." The lead Dalek said.

"I said no."

"What is the meaning of this negative?"

"It means no," The Doctor said, as if speaking to a small child, firm and forceful.

"She will be destroyed."

"No!" He stood. "Because this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to rescue her. I'm going to save Rose Tyler from the middle of the Dalek fleet. Then I'm going to save the Earth. And then, just to finish up, I'm going to wipe every last stinking Dalek out of the sky!"

"But you have no weapons, no defenses, no plan." Was it my imagination or did the Daleks sound a bit scared?

"Yeah. And doesn't that scare you to death?" The Doctor grinned. "Rose?"

"Yes, Doctor?"

"I'm coming to get you," he said, holding up the sonic screwdriver and switching the transmission off.

"The Doctor has indicated hostile action. The timetable must advance. Begin invasion of Earth. The Doctor will be exterminated. Exterminate! Exterminate!" the Daleks cried.

I was scared half out of my mind, but I knew one thing.

He was coming for me.

"You are the Doctor's bond mate." The lead Dalek swung his attention to me. "You understand him. You will predict his actions."

"You obviously don't understand marriage, mate," I said with half a laugh. "Most wives don't understand their husbands."

"Predict!"

"I don't know!" I snapped. "And even if I did, I wouldn't tell ya."

"Predict! Predict!" It swung its gun toward me.

"TARDIS is detected in flight," another Dalek said. "Launch missiles. Exterminate!"

"No!" I cried. "You can't! The TARDIS has no defenses, you're going to kill 'im!"

"You have predicted correctly."

A strange tingling feeling shuddered through my body and I found myself and the Dalek pointing the gun at me materialized inside the TARDIS.

"Rose! Duck!"

I stumbled back behind a panel just as the Doctor held up a rather large gun and blew the Dalek away. I stared.

"Blimey! You never use guns and then you go all Rambo," I said, coming out from my hiding place.

The Doctor dropped the gun. "That's why I don't like to use them. Go all to my head." He grinned.

I flung myself at him. "You did it!"

He hugged me to him and only then did I realize he was shaking. He tilted my chin up to bruise my lips in a kiss that was part relief and part tension.

"I feel like I haven't seen you in years," I said when he released me.

"Told you I was coming to get you."

"I never doubted you."

"I did," he said seriously.

"You alright?" I asked, concerned.

"I've been better."

"You said they were all dead, how come they're still alive?"

"The Great Time War," he said, his voice sounding hollow. "My people were destroyed, taking the Daleks with them. I almost thought it was worth it. Turns out it was for nothing."

I was pained for him. To lose everything for nothing┘And the news was only going to get worse. "There's thousands of them now. What are we going to do?"

He took a deep breath and suddenly he was my Doctor again, cheery in the face of danger. "No use standing around with your chin wagging. Daleks have the answers, let's go meet the neighbors." He turned and strode outside.

"You can't go out there!" I followed him, skidding to a stop when I saw the Daleks shooting blasts at him, ineffective by a forcefield he had somehow erected around the TARDIS.

"Useless, the lot of you," The Doctor taunted. "You know what they call me in the legends of the Dalek world? The Oncoming Storm. You may have removed your emotion, but you must remember fear. So tell me, how did you survive the Time War?"

"The survived through me," a deep voice sounded.

The Doctor lost his mirth. He took my hand as I walked up to him, running a finger along the edge of the band as if to remember it was still there.  
"Rose, this is the Emperor of the Daleks," he said softly.

"Oh, my God," I whispered.

We were going to die.


	3. Chapter 3

My mind had been gibbering since we managed to escape the clutches of the Emperor of the Daleks. It was whirling with thoughts of zombie Daleks, made of parts of humans. Unstoppable little killing machines that had wiped out the Doctor's people, now setting their sights on Earth.

And it was up to the Doctor and I to stop it.

I glanced at him. He had been uncharacteristically quiet since my rescue and the meeting with the emperor. We had returned to Satellite 5 and he had become all business again, snapping orders to those left on Satellite Five, barely saying a word to the new girl with the pigtails, at least I wasn't going to get replaced, but not saying much more to me except in an assistant sort of way √ hand me that tool, hold this wire, that kind of thing. He had some sort of plan again the Daleks, a Delta wave that would neutralize them,  
but it was sounding like it would likely wipe us out too.

I could act brave for him, but the truth was, I didn't want to die. I know no one really wants to, but I had barely begun these adventures with him, was it so much to hope for more? And I wanted to see my Mum and Mickey again. Oh, God, Mum. I was going to die in a war in the far-off future, and she would never know what had happened to me. She'd go on planning my wedding, and then be disappointed I never showed. Would she think that I had forgotten about her forever or would she suspicion that I had died?

"We could take the TARDIS, you know."

"Hmm?" I looked up to see the Doctor studying me gravely, blue eyes dark.

"I said we could take the TARDIS away. We could leave. Let history take its course. We'd go to Malbay in 1989."

"Yeah, but you'd never do that," I said, dismissing even the thought of it.

"I'd do it for you," he said seriously, those eyes flashing blue fire.

I smiled at him. "I love you too. That's sweet of you to even suggest. But I'd never ask you to."

"You'll see it through with me then?"

"Of course." There was no doubt in my mind. It might be suicide, but my place was with him.

He gave me a strained smile. "I love you too, Rose Tyler." He reached over and took my hand. "It's charging. We need to check the readings on the TARDIS."

"Alright," I said gamely, letting him lead me back to the TARDIS and inside.

His tongue was in my mouth before the TARDIS doors had even slammed shut. I kissed him back in defense before he devoured me whole.

"Not that I mind, but shouldn't we be doing something?" I asked between kisses.

"Oh we're doing something alright," he said, hands roaming to places that I didn't mind him visiting.

"But the Delta Wave┘"

"Is charging, I told you," he said against my mouth, as his long fingers worked the button on my jeans. "We have time to kill."

"Well, if this is the end of the world, this is the way to go out," I said, tugging his shirt off.

We were lost in our own special way of stopping time.

He kept studying my face as if he trying to memorize it.

I kissed his nose. "Aren't you glad you brought me along?"

"Just for an end-of-the-world shag? Of course," he joked, but it was strained. Time was running out for the both of us.

"I'm glad I'm with you," I said, trying to reassure him that I had no regrets at all.

He smiled for real. "I am too." He kissed my lips softly. "I love you, Rose Tyler." Then he pushed me up and off of him. "But now we've got work to do. We've got a Dalek fleet to take out." He was dressing again in that faster than the speed of light way he had. "Come here, I need you to hold this button down so that I can take one last reading."

"Alright." I tugged my clothes back on and walked over to the console.

"Just push these two down." He pointed to two buttons which I clicked, as he flipped some dials and twisted a knob. "Right. Just hold them down until I tell you to let go." He bounded out the door without a backward glance.

I checked the monitor in front of me. "Is it doing anything? Doctor?"

The TARDIS doors slammed shut.

I looked up. "Doctor? What's going on?"

And then the engines started up.

I knew what he had done.

"No! No!" I pounded on the console, flipping switches and hitting buttons at random. "No! Send me back! Take me back to him!"

And then a hologram of the Doctor flickered to life.

"This is emergency programme one," it said. "Rose, now listen, this is important. If this programme is activated, it can only mean one thing √ we must be in danger, and I mean fatal. I'm dead or about to die any second with no chance of escape. And that's okay, hope it's a good death. But if there's anyway in my power to stop it, I can't let you die. I've already watched everyone I ever cared be destroyed and I won't let it happen again.  
Especially not now." The holgram faced me. "Rose, you've done something I didn't believe was possible √ you brought me back to life when I thought I was dead inside, that there was no love left inside of me. But I was wrong and you've awakened it. I love you, Rose Marion Tyler, more than you can possibly know."

I felt a tear slide down my cheek. "I love you too," I whispered.

"And that's why I'm doing what I promised to do when I won that swordfight on Paxil. I'm taking care of you. The TARDIS is taking you home."

"I won't-"

"And I'll bet your fussin' and moanin' now, typical. But just listen a bit more. The TARDIS can never return for me. Emergency programme one means I'm facing an enemy who should never get their hands on this machine. So this is what you should do √ let the TARDIS die. Just let this old box gather dust. No one can open it, no one will even notice it. Let it become a strange little thing standing on a street corner. And over the years, the world will move on and the box will be buried. And you've got to move on too," the hologram said, seeming to focus again on me with its intense gaze. "You're so young and you've got so much ahead of you, I don't want to see you bury all of your potential in grief. So if you want to remember me, do this: Have a good life. Do that for me, love. Have a fantastic life." The hologram flickered out.

"You can't do this to me!" I cried. "Take me back!"

The TARDIS' engines shut down. I ran over to the door and flung it open, hoping against hope to see Satellite Five again and the Doctor standing there sheepishly, waiting for me to give him a piece of my mind.

And instead I saw London. My town. My time.

I felt sick. Taking deep breaths, I leaned against the ship, taking care not to shut the door in case it locked me out.

I heard running footsteps and looked up. My mum was almost upon me, with Mickey following close behind.

"Heard the engines and knew it could only mean one thing, that you're back!" Mum said, hugging me. "Glad you came back before the wedding, we've got some things to sort out."

"There she is!" Mickey said, grabbing me up and swinging me around for a great big hug. "Hullo Mrs. Doctor! Where's the old man?"

I burst into tears.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four:

I sat dejectedly with my back against the side of the TARDIS. Every time I thought I was all cried out I'd remember that he was off dying in the far off future and I'd start crying. As I wiped another batch of tears away, Mickey, who was sitting next to me, gave me a squeeze. I lay my head on his shoulder, glad that he was here.

"Sweetheart, I understand you're upset, I really do, but you can't sit by the side of the road forever," Mum said, crouching down in front of me. "He did was what right by you, he sent you back to me."

"But I don't belong here!" I snapped.

She was taken aback. "Think you're better than us now?" she snapped back.

"That's not it at all and you know it," I said, pinning her with my gaze. "I'm married to 'im, Mum! I belong with him now. And I've got to figure out a way to get back there."

"But like you said, the TARDIS only listens to 'im. He sent it back here with you. There is no way back," she reminded.

"It doesn't mean that I just give up!" I snapped. "You wouldn't have given up on Dad!"

"I'm sorry, sweetheart, I really am. I didn't want to see you a widow at a young age just like I was. But you're going to have to move on."

I shook my head viciously. "I won't. I can't."

"You have to, Rose! I had to with your Dad. Do you think it didn't kill me to be left alone with you to look after? That he'd never get to see what a great person you grew up to become? That you don't even remember what his voice sounded like? That some stranger was with him when he died instead of me?" She looked away from me, crying.

"That wasn't some stranger," I said softly. "That was me."

Her attention snapped to me. "What are you on about?"

"That girl, Mum! There was a blonde girl who held his hand as he died, don't you remember?"

"Course I remember! I've told you that story, that's why you remember it, you were only a baby at the time."

"He took me back there. The Doctor." I held her gaze. "So that Dad wouldn't have to die alone in the street. So that I could be there to hold his hand. That blonde girl was me, Mum! You saw me!"

"Stop it."

"And before the world went into chaos, I got to meet him, talk him. I know what his voice sounds like!"

"Just stop it!" she hissed, sounding on the brink of tears.

"That's how great the Doctor is. And I'm not leaving him to die alone with the Daleks. If I can't save him, I'm at least going to be there to hold his hand."

Mum turned away from me, walking down the street briskly.

"Mum!"

"Give her a minute," Mickey said.

"But she's-"

"You're freaking her out, Rose! You're freaking me out."

I ground my teeth in frustration. "You don't understand. Even though it's in the future, it's happening right now! He's dying right now and I'm sitting along the side of the road unable to do anything, unable to get back!" I kicked the side of the TARDIS in frustration.

"I'll help you, alright?" Mickey said, taking me by the shoulders. "If there's anyway for you to get back, I'll help you do it."

"Thanks, Mick." I hugged him, turning slightly. I glanced over, and then froze.

He felt the tension in my body. "What?"

"How long's that been there?" I asked, pulling away to point over his shoulder.

He glanced back. "I don't know, it's graffiti. It's been there forever. Why?"

"Bad Wolf." I pointed to the spray-painted words on the wall across from us. And on the park bench. And on the brick wall nearby. "It's been following me, across time and space. Bad Wolf here, Bad Wolf there." I stepped back with a gasp, seeing it was written in huge letters on the sidewalk right where we and the TARDIS were standing. My heart sped up. "It's a sign."

Mum came running back, seeing me excited about something. "What's wrong?"

"It's saying I can get back!" I shouted, running back inside the TARDIS.

"All the TARDIS needs to do is make a return trip - reverse," I said, going over the console.

"Yeah, but you can't do it," Mum said.

"The Doctor always said the TARDIS was telepathic. This thing is alive. It can listen."

"It's not listening now, is it?" Mickey put in.

"We've got to get inside it. Last time I was here, remember Mum, in the fight with the Slitheen, this little bit of it opened. And there was this light. The Doctor said it was the heart of the TARDIS. If I can open it, I can make contact. Tell it what to do."

"But it might be dangerous, it turned the Slitheen into an egg," Mum reminded.

"It was protecting us."

"We can try my car, see if we can pry it open," Mickey said.

"Your car can barely get on the motorway, I don't think it's going to pry that thing open," Mum said, eying it critically. "Be right back."

Mickey glanced at me. "Where's she going?"

We both stared in awe as Mum drove up in a recovery and rescue truck.

"Mum, how?"

"You have it for an hour. Rodrego owed me a favor, don't ask why." She fixed me with a serious look. "Now get on with it before I change my mind."

I hugged her. "I love you, Mum."

"I love you too, sweetheart." She hugged me back.

We both watched as Mickey hooked up the tow cable to the panel in the TARDIS and got back in the vehicle. Mum wandered outside, while I manned my post at the console.

"Put your foot down!" Mum yelled to Mickey as he started it up. The cable was stretched tight, the tires of the truck were burning, it wasn't going to work!

And then the panel gave way, ripping apart slightly, a tranquil, golden light spilling out. The doors to the TARDIS slammed shut of their own accord. I looked into the TARDIS, telling it my heart's desire, to get back in time to save the Doctor somehow.

As we became one mind, I knew it was her desire too.

The Doctor knew this was it. The end of the line. He couldn't stop the Daleks this time. He had always known that somehow, their ghosts would return to finish him off and he'd join his people in oblivion.

His only regret was that it meant leaving Rose.

But at least she was back home, hopefully going on to a better life than the one he could've given her.

And then he heard the TARDIS engines.

He whirled to see it fade into existence, hearts racing. No, she couldn't have!

Then the TARDIS doors flew open and he knew she had. She had somehow convinced the TARDIS to come back, to meet her fate with him.

He loved her, but she could be so human sometimes.

Any reproach died on his lips when he saw her.

"What have you done?" he gasped.

His lovely Rose was golden, Time Vortex energy flowing everywhere, radiating from her mouth and eyes.

"I looked into the TARDIS," she said, her voice otherworldly. "And the TARDIS looked into me."

His hearts broke. "Rose, you looked into the Time Vortex. No one's meant to see that!"

"This is the abomination. Exterminate!" The Daleks chorused and one raised its gun to blast her.

Rose stopped the blast with one hand. She eyed the wall critically. "I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself. I take the words." He watched as the words literally peeled themselves off the wall. "I scatter them into time and space. A message to lead myself here."

"Rose, you've got to stop this. You've got to stop this now," he begged. "You've got the entire vortex running through your head. You're going to burn!" He couldn't sit there and watch her die before him.

She turned her attention to him. "I want you safe. My Doctor." Her golden eyes burned for him. "My love. Protected from the false God."

That got to the Emperor. "You cannot hurt me. I am immortal."

She focused on the Dalek. "You are tiny. I can see the whole of time and space. Every atom of your existence and I divide them." She waved her hand and the Doctor watched in equal parts elation and horror as the Daleks began to be reduced to nothing but vague atoms.

"Everything must come to dust," the Bad Wolf Rose said. "All things. Everything dies. The Time War ends."

It was over. Rose Tyler had saved the world.

"Rose, you've done it, now stop. Let go," he begged.

"How can I let go of this?" she breathed.

"The power's going to kill you and it's my fault!" She was burning up from the inside out and he was powerless to stop it. This was worse than watching her die as a victim of the Daleks. Because she had done this for him. She had sacrificed herself for him.

"I can see everything," she breathed. "All that is. All that was." She looked at him. "All that ever could be."

Her expression grew quizzical.

"You're a man with a different face. We're separated forever. Or you're the same, only with a beard, and we're walking hand-in-hand on a planet of ice. But you're not the same, you're younger. Or you're the man with a different face, and you're trying to make me remember you before I marry someone else. Or we're the same as we are right now, only I'm pushing a pram." Her golden eyes burned with unshed tears. "So many possibilities."

She was right, so many possibilities, but there was only one he saw before them now. "It's the time stream. That's what I see. All the time."

But she was not a Time Lord. Her mind wasn't equipped to deal with this.

Rose Tyler, the human who had somehow become his wife, was going to die.

A golden explosion of light erupted from Rose and he caught just before she slid boneless to the ground. He picked up her limp body and carried her aboard the TARDIS, the doors shutting by themselves behind them.

"Rose, hold on. I'll figure out something, just please hold on," he begged, even then knowing it was useless. Even his brilliant mind couldn't find a way to stop death. She wasn't a Time Lord, she didn't have the secret of regeneration encoded on her DNA. "Do something!" he begged the TARDIS, still holding her in his arms. "Do anything! Just don't let her die!"

Rose looked at him, her eyes no longer golden. "Did we win? Did we stop the Daleks?" she asked weakly.

He tried to smile. "You did it. You stopped the Daleks, love."

She gave a weak smile. "That's nice." Her whole body shuddered, the skin going translucent. "Had to save you."

"You did." His voice choked with tears. There was nothing he could do now. She was dying. The one woman who brought him back from feeling dead inside was going to leave him forever.

He wasn't sure if he was going to survive it.

"Love you," she whispered, her strength draining from her.

"I love you too." This time the tears did spread unashamedly down his face. "Rose, please don't leave me," he whispered in panic, knowing how useless his pleas were.

She pressed her lips to his in one last kiss of passion, love, and need. "I can see...you moving on."

"No," he whispered.

"With a stranger with black hair...and green eyes," she gasped.

"No."

"And you love her."

He shook his head. "No one's replacing you, Rose. No one's going to be in my heart but you."

"You love her and she loves you." She smiled. "For all of time."

Her hand, the one with the ring on it that said those very words, squeezed his. Her eyes closed as golden breath escaped from her, fading into nothingness as it left her lungs.

Her body went limp.

"No!" he screamed. "Do something, anything!" he snapped to the TARDIS. "Don't let her leave me! Rose, don't leave me! Rose!" He buried his face against her and wept, his grief drowning out everything else. Even as the TARDIS whispered into his ear.

Rose Marion Tyler was dead.

Long live Rose Marion Tyler.


	5. Epilogue

Epilogue:

Jackie Tyler hummed a Christmas song as she set another wrapped present down. She paused as she picked up one for Rose. It had been months since her daughter had disappeared back into the time machine, determined to save her husband or die with him. As much as she had loved Pete, Rose's father, Jackie wasn't sure if she had ever known a love like that. She couldn't help but be a bit proud that her Rose had.

It was the only comfort she had since her daughter could very well be dead.

But Jackie didn't believe that. Through all the crazy adventures Rose had, she had always survived with wit, pluck, and a funny story or trinket to show her old Mum back in London. Rose Marion Tyler was a survivor at all costs, she would survive this.

That was why Jackie had continued on with her wedding plans. Rose and her erstwhile husband might show up on her doorstep at any moment, forgetting that while it had only been a moment ago since they left her, for Jackie, it had been months. They would expect everything ready for the formal ceremony Jackie had planned, so she kept it up, even though Mickey thought her half-daft. She thought she was more times than not, but it was the only thing that kept her from falling into the completely daft category.

Hope.

And then faintly she heard the engines and knew that her hope hadn't been in vain.

Throwing open the door and running outside, who cared about the winter chill when Rose was coming home for Christmas, and ran down the steps, almost plowing into Mickey as he ran out of his flat.

"Did ya hear?" Mickey asked, his face radiating joy. Jackie couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for him; as much as he was dating other girls, it was obvious he was still in love with her married daughter.

"Course they'd show up only a day before the ceremony," Jackie groused, but mostly because it was expected of her. She was thrilled to know everything was okay, Rose was safe and home...

And they watched as the TARDIS careened overhead, clipped a building, and skidded to a stop in front of the building. The doors were flung open and the Doctor looked wildly around, carrying a lifeless Rose in his arms.

Seeing Jackie, relief crossed his features. "Jackie Tyler! Quick, I need..."

"What have you done?" Jackie couldn't keep her eyes off the lifeless body of her daughter. "What have you done to her?"

"Oh, my God, she's dead!" Mickey paled. "Rose is dead! You've killed Rose!"

"No!" The Doctor protested. "Well, yes, she is dead, but I didn't kill her. Now I need to park the TARDIS in your flat, Jackie."

Jackie felt like the world had dropped out from under her. "Excuse me? You have the nerve to stand here, with my daughter dead in front of us after you promised to take care of her, and calmly ask me to park your sodding machine in my flat?" she shrieked.

He paled. "No, Jackie, listen."

"No, you listen!" she shrieked. "You've killed my daughter, you bastard!"

"She's not dead!" he yelled. "Yes, she absorbed the Time Vortex, and no one's meant to do that, especially not a human. But she absorbed the Time Vortex, which is Time Lord science. She absorbed the Time Vortex inside the TARDIS, also made my Time Lords. And she's married to a Time Lord."

"So what does all of that mean and how does that add up to Rose not being dead?" Mickey asked.

"Glad you asked, Mickey boy," the Doctor said, looking slightly mad. "You see, the Time Lords have a little trick for cheating death - we regenerate, all of the cells in our body die and are remade into something new. Rose bonded with a machine and with a power that understands Time Lords and how they work. It knew that Rose, a lowly human, could not survive with the whole of the Time Vortex running around in her. It began to modify her to what it understood, that is Time Lords. The TARDIS and the power of the Time Vortex can't remake her in total like a Time Lord, more like a half-human, half-Time Lord..."

"I don't understand any of this!" Jackie shrieked again, feeling a slight bit of hope at the Doctor's words. "What does it all mean?"

"Rose is undergoing a transformation not unlike my people's regeneration."

"Which means what?"

"It means she's going to change."

_The Doctor will return in The Christmas Wedding Crashers..._

_Author's Note: I have plans to continue if people are still interested, let me know, please!_


	6. Note

Did you enjoy this story and want more? The sequel, The Christmas Wedding Crashers is now up on this site. Or, if you have a live journal account, friend me at amynthetardis. for all of my fanfiction. Remember, feedback is love and keeps me writing more for you!


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